First Post! Hey sue me ... (Long)

Yep, I know, lame Slashdot reference but it actually means that this is my first post. In the future you'll find my miscellaneous blatherings. For those of you who are not from the US, please pardon my use of humor. I'll try to append a smiley to at least give some hint that it's humor :-) Please note that this blog is not titled Linux ha! but Linux H A (home automation).

A long time ago in a time far, far way ...

OK, now on to my topic of interest, Home Automation!

First, understand I've been on the Internet since 1985 (Usenet & ftp then) when I ventured onto the Soup Kitchen BBS (Rutgers, New Brunswick NJ 300/1200 Baud). A friend later showed me how to bounce around between the hosts and how to find things. For the life of me I can't remember what moniker I used!

Around 1990 I had been working with an AT&T 3B1 and a Heath kit X10 interface (a CP290?). Later I received a 386sx/16, ran Linux 0.9x (I remember loading over a 100 floppies) and 2 serial ports. After modifying the software (cp290 software) to work with Linux I was up and running. Later, my friend ('D') picked up a X10 CM11A kit and gave it to me as a Christmas present. I remember using Archie, Veronica and Jughead to search (there was no Google then) for software for the CM11A. Later I found Dan Lanciani's x10d software. Though it was for BSD I compiled it on Linux. Shortly there after I got an AT&T Worldnet account (1996) and I eventually create my first Linux Home Automation page. Which looked a lot like this. I've updated it a little but that was my first web page from 1996. That page was 32K in size and I thought it was too big (remember that only dial-up was available then, broadband was just a rumor). My current main page is 101K and the entire LHA site is about 12M in size. I also have 2 other web sites, the Open Source HCS Project and the Linux Home Automation project. I also keep a backup of both at www.linuxha.com. The Linux Home Automation project is pretty much idle. That's because I've moved my attention to using Misterhouse which is Perl software for Home Automation and Control. On the hardware side I've been busy with the HCS (Home Control System). This system started with Steve Ciarcia's HCS II (I've got to get a few pictures up there). It's since grown to a new ARM based HCS_C board.

Anyhow, that's enough for now. I'll save some rambling for tomorrow. :-)